The Saudi authorities have sentenced a young disabled man to beheading in relation to his alleged attendance at protests, it’s emerged.

Munir Adam, 23, was arrested in 2012 in the wake of protests in the country’s Eastern Province. He was tortured by Saudi police into ‘confessing’ to involvement in protests. Munir has impairments to both his sight and his hearing, following an accident as a young child. Despite medical records that confirmed his disability – and a doctor’s warning that further trauma could worsen his injuries – police beat Munir badly that he lost all hearing in one ear.

Munir was sentenced to death in the Kingdom’s secretive Specialised Criminal Court, in which three juveniles – Ali al Nimr, Dawood al Marhoon and Abdullah al Zaher – also received death sentences in relation to protests. Munir was forced to write his own defence after he was prevented from speaking to a lawyer. Facing charges that included using his mobile phone to organize protests, Munir recanted his ‘confession’, saying that he had only signed statements under torture. He denied the charges, telling the court that he comes from a poor family and had never even owned a mobile phone.